Samsung Galaxy Gear on sale for $150 at Best Buy today

Android-powered smartwatch available for half the launch price

If you're tempted by Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch but have been put off by the relatively high price, Best Buy has a deal that may be of interest. The online store is today selling the Galaxy Gear for $149.99 outright, just half the original launch price of $299.99, as part of its deal of the day. The Android-powered watch is available in rose gold, oatmeal beige, lime green and wild orange. The mocha gray and jet black aren't included in today's sale and still cost $249.99.

The Galaxy Gear didn't exactly wow us at launch, due to its high price and limited notification support for non-Samsung apps. But with recent software updates the device has improved, and at $150 the Gear is definitely worth a look — just remember you'll also need a Samsung smartphone with support for the Gear Manager app.

I personally don't think the Gear 2 will be announced at MWC. To me it seems like a bad idea to announce and release a successor only 4-5 months after the previous iteration was released. Almost every major product in the mobile tech world comes in one year cycles. I believe the Gear 2 would be around August or September. As for the price drop, I am guessing this is just a Best Buy thing as no other retailer dropped the price and the Best Buy price drop is because the item is a Deal of the Day for them.

Why wouldn't they announce it there will be plenty of smartwatches at this year's MWC. Samsung wanted to be the first major player for the mainstream smartwatch, it would only be logical for them to show up with the Galaxy Gear 2 alongside of the S5 promote them together sell them together.

I figure the original galaxy gear was announced with the note 3, I figure galaxy gear 2 would be announced with note 4 keeping it on a cycle. This is just my guess, nothing official, no sources, just a guess from me.

While that is a logical expectation, I would not be surprised to see the new Gear announced alongside the S5. They know they missed the mark in a number of ways with the current Gear, especially when it comes to device compatibility, and don't want to fall behind in a burgeoning field that isn't set in a current release cycle yet.

When I went into the Best Buy to pick up me Gear I was talking to the Samsung rep about it. She wouldn't give me any real details but I was able to get some info our of her.

She said that it will be out by April. That's means a MWC announcement and 2-3 week release would work. She also said that it will be at $300 or more "depending on what capabilities it has." Not sure if that means different models or she isn't sure.

I asked her if it had a larger screen or a flexible one and that's when she stopped talking about it. She said I might be a secret shopper and wouldn't talk about it anymore.

Sorry I can't remember where I read it, but there was an article yesterday indicating that the next gear would be released alongside the S5, and feature wider device compatibility AND... a much lower price. Who knows if that's true, but if any company can afford to use competitive pricing to get their devices adopted ahead of the pack it's Samsung.

Actually, there are old stand alones- using Android 2.+ from two years ago, and some new ones like my just received omate truesmart watch. The truesmart has 4.2 and is more stand alone than accessory, although they're supposed to be working on an app for that connectivity. My brief experience is it's an awesome watch, hoping to use it to track outdoor sports (weather is inhibiting me at the moment).

This doesn't interest me as much. That just requires them to cram more into the device making it bulkier, shortening battery life, and raising the cost. I'd much rather piggyback my phone's connection via Bluetooth 4.0 since I almost always have it with me anyway. We might be wanting to do very different things with our smart watches though.

yeah i know it's a nexus, also bearing a GALAXY name moniker as well, so one could see why maybe it should also be included, the reason most why it's not though it due to it not having S-voice supported directly, though it's possible to sideload with no issue's, being just a nexus device isn't the only reason!.

it's not a series as in 1/2/3, but it's not just a google nexus, it's specifically named Samsung Galaxy Nexus, what i'm referring to and you may be missing is that it carries the moniker and name association, again it may have more to do with not having S-Voice support than anything else since that is what is heavily dependent on for voice control. Either way at this point we all know it won't get support.

Dude, the phone is retired. The Gear won't officially support it. Period. If you must have a Galaxy Gear, you can probably hack a mod that enables it to work with your GNex. Otherwise, this back and forth with them (karvoris and twolastnames) is pointless.

I wouldn't expect them to support it,would be nice to see them support device's outside of the Galaxy line up, besides price that has been a bigger setback for them more then anything, granted i'm not saying sales are hurting or suffering, but their sales would more then likely increase if they weren't taking such a Apple type of approach to the products by limiting themselves to just select devices.

It would be nice to see it outside the Samsung universe, but it is another of their hooks to get you sucked in.

I still think that there are software issues that is holding it back. I seems to remember it being installed on a non standard HTC One (ROM'd) and it was not fully functional because it relies on S-voice. I do know that it relies on BT (newest only) LE so that is part of the reason that it is not on more Samsung devices. A Note I or whatever does not support LE.

They are not going to open up S-voice to everyone yet so that is a major impediment.

As far as price, it is the only one made of stainless steel, it has one of the biggest screens, it uses voice assistance (not many do), and is the (?) only one with a camera.

$150 seems like a very reasonable price for the Gear. Unfortunately, I'm not interested in walking around with something that can be seen from space on my wrist. If they had included the black or grey I would have loved to jump on this, but I'm guessing the brighter colors are not selling as well and they're just trying to clear out inventory.

I I just picked up an Orange one for the the wife for Valentine's Day. I think she'd like a white one better but unfortunately the "white" is a dingy, almost gray color.
Side note - Best Buy employees had no idea they were on sale, even argued with the sales "manager" until another employee went and looked it up..

I am very tempted to go out and buy the orange one. I funded/bought a crocs like shoe on Kickstarter called Crosskix. I purchased the orange one so I have been getting orange accessories for my phone (S3) like Orange back/case/cover. A orange watch would compliment well and make it easier to take pictures of artwork at shows (for school) without getting in trouble in some places. But with the rumor of the Gear 2 coming out soon I think I'll pass. I'm not exactly looking forward to purchasing the Gear 2 but the potential price drops that will come to the original Gear watches. Might drop beyond $150. Plus when a general price drop is adopted by nearly all retailers/eretailers I can buy the watch free shipping/no tax online. Not exactly $150 you pay at Best Buy.

That's too bad. Mocha and Black are the only 2 colors that I'm interested in, and I would definitely buy one for $150. I just don't care for any of the other colors. Oh well, guess I'm back to waiting for the Gear 2...

I just picked up the gold one. The employees had no idea the sale was on. But if you pick it out they will honor the price. I like it so far. For 150 its totally worth it. For 250 hell no. But its been working great with notifications and i can answer calls while driving which i do alot for my job. S voice is s voice but its been working surprisingly well.

At first I did not want the watch... then looking more closely over time I became more interested in it. Saw this article about the price slash when it came this morning (I said hmmm) as I was getting in from work, but I fell asleep with Note 3 in hand. Got to work later on that night saw my co worker got a new watch from her significant other for valentines. NOW!!! I am hot for the Galaxy gear... got to the Best buy website and they are sold out called store all around and the customer service WTF !!!!! Now I am sitting at work Hotter than fish grease and my wrist naked like a Jay Bird!!!

I went to Bestbuy today and discussed with the bb rep that I wanted to come in yesterday and get one but couldnt get out of my neighborhood due to the massive amounts of snow and I asked if they would honor the daily deal. The rep said no and so I asked to speak to the manager the rep went to call him... after 5 min the rep came back and told me that they had two rose gold models and they would do the 150 for them if I wanted them. I got mine!!!

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project
and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License. AndroidCentral is an independent site
that is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.